Toronto, Ontario
Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre & Partners
Collaborating to Provide Mobile Overdose Prevention Response in the Downtown Core
Requested amount: $67,685
This project has been fully funded – thank you for your support!
The Challenge
Downtown Toronto is experiencing a worsening overdose crisis – especially in high-need areas like Moss Park, Dundas-Sherbourne, Parkdale, Spadina-Fort York and Kensington Market. These neighbourhoods already face concentrated poverty, homelessness, mental health challenges, and exposure to a highly contaminated and unpredictable street drug supply that requires new types of overdose response interventions – particularly oxygen, which is recognized as best practice and a more effective and clinical intervention for opioid overdoses. As supervised consumption sites close and harm reduction funding declines, individuals who use drugs will be even harder to reach for both overdose prevention supports and connection to other health and social services.
The Approach
Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre (PQWCHC) was forced to close its safe consumption site in 2025, but drug use did not disappear – it disbursed to other settings, such as community organizations, shelters, public services (TTC, libraries, etc.) and drop ins. This five-month enhanced service model is a collaboration between PQWCHC, Fred Victor, and West Neighbourhood house that aims to strengthen overdose prevention and community safety efforts in Toronto’s downtown core. The proposed initiative includes two key roles:
- A Nurse Practitioner Clinical Lead (NP – 0.2 FTE) to support the expansion and implementation of oxygen response capacity in shelters, drop-ins, and other frontline community settings. This role would provide staff training, clinical oversight, protocol development, and support for overdose response best practices.
- Overdose Prevention Support Workers (OPSW – 1.4 FTE) to increase outreach and overdose response efforts during evenings and weekends, when overdose risk and service gaps are often greatest. These workers would provide direct frontline support, wellness checks, crisis response, and connections to care 7 days a week.
What Success Looks Like
The collaborating organizations understand that a flexible approach is needed to meet people who use drugs in community. The effectiveness of this shared approach will be measured by:
- # of overdoses responded to and their outcomes (reduction in fatalities)
- # of newly trained staff in oxygen response
- # of sites piloting oxygen
- # of referrals to care made to integrated primary care
- # of evening & weekend supports provided to individuals
- # of neighbourhood clean-up activities
Project Timeline
A minimum five-month implementation and evaluation period is required to properly assess the functionality, effectiveness, and sustainability of the proposed collaborative model. This timeframe would allow sufficient opportunity to implement oxygen response capacity across participating shelters and drop-ins, train frontline staff, establish clinical protocols, and stabilize outreach operations. It would also provide time to evaluate the impact of expanded evening and weekend overdose prevention services. This period would also allow participating organizations to identify operational challenges, service gaps, and evolving community needs linked to the toxic drug supply.
Funding Need
$67,685 for a 0.2 FTE Nurse Practitioner and 1.4 FTE Overdose Prevention Support Worker for 5 months.
Budget available upon request.
If you’d like to support or reach out with any questions about this project, please contact:
Angela Robertson, Chief Executive Officer
arobertson@pqwchc.ca